It
is a film about random café encounters in Cannes, partly made possible by a
random café encounter in Cannes. Architect Shahira Fahmy happened to tell Hong
Sang-soo about her acting ambitions when they struck up a conversation in a café
during the Cannes Film Festival. A few hours later, she was shooting a scene
with Isabelle Huppert. It wasn’t a hugely consequential scene, but it is still
a good start. It is also very Hong Sang-soo. Indeed, a chance encounter of that
nature would not be out of place in the film in question, Hong’s Claire’s Camera (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York.
Camera could be
considered the third film in the awkward trilogy of films helmed by Hong and
starring Kim Min-hee, addressing unfaithfulness and released after news of
their affair went public. This is the best of the three. The explicit reference
to Eric Rohmer (director of Claire’s Knee)
is no accident. Camera is very
Rohmeresque. His characters wander incessantly, but this is a Hong film, so they
also drink, especially, So Hansoo, the Hong-esque director.
Jeon
Manhee is about to be fired by her boss, producer-sales agent Nam Yanghye, soon
after their arrival in Cannes, because she ill-advisedly let So sleep with her.
So isn’t just talent they are handling. He is also Nam’s lover—or at least he
was. He intends to break it off once their French guest at lunch takes her
leave. That would be Claire, a charming music teacher, who also writes poetry
and compulsively takes pictures. She came down from Paris for the premiere of
her friend’s film (played by Fahmy), but while strolling through town, she
makes the chance acquaintances of both Jeon and So, who are quite struck by the
coincidence when they see the photographic evidence of Claire’s encounters.
At
a mere sixty-nine minutes, Camera feels
light and brief, but there are some heady themes lurking under the surface and
some heavy emotions bubbling over. While there is little of Hong’s previous narrative
gamesmanship, he rather subtly and slyly proves Claire’s vaguely postmodern
contention that the act of taking someone’s picture changes them. This is
definitely true in the case of Jeon and So.
Claire
is a nice change of pace for Huppert (reuniting with Hong after In Another Country), but she still
commands the screen utterly and completely. After watching Camera, everyone should be convinced it would be great fun to café-hop
your way across Cannes with her. Kim’s work as Jeon is just as sensitively
rendered as her award-winning performance in On the Beach at Night Alone, but she also shows a bit of goofy
humor that is wonderfully sweet and endearing. Jung Jin-young’s So is basically
an amalgamation of every unpleasant Hong Sang-soo cliché, but Chang Mi-hee is
surprisingly human and vulnerable as the ragingly insecure Nam. Plus, there is
a big gray dog who steals several scenes, even though he literally sleeps
through them.
Claire’s Camera is vintage Hong
and a lovely showcase for Huppert and Kim. It just captures that indescribable late-night
vibe. Surely, Rohmer would have approved. Very highly recommended, Claire’s Camera opens this Friday (3/9)
in New York, at the Film Society of Lincoln Center.
